I didn't get a diagnosis until my kids were like 11 and 14, I think. I didn't have to think about that aspect, in part because my first child was the result of failed birth control. I was already married, so I didn't consider having an abortion.
But when I was having kids, I was still being treated like I was a hypochondriac. I sometimes refer to my diagnosis as "a better name for my condition than crazy."
no one is trying to kill you for profit. They just don't care about you because you're can't make money for them. It's still bad, but different.
You meet a lot of skeptics because no matter how honest or correct you are, without access to a large test population and a way to precisely measure your dozens of tiny ideas that add up to a healthier overall life, it's impossible for an outside observer to distinguish you from quacks like Gwyneth Paltrow.
Also, being upfront about your suffering makes people uncomfortable and avoidant. Not your fault, but that's life.
You have a lot of disappointment with HN, largely because you see all these rich people who like talking to you but won't invest in you.
My advice: take a lesson from them. Put on a fake happy face, rewrite your narrative so that your pain is in your past, copy the obnoxious marketing techniques that smell foul but work.
You're in a "line" where everyone thinks you are bullshitting. If you can't beat it, join it. Run your effort the same way the dishonest snake oil salesmen do, and use your own conscience to tell you you are doing good. Make a little money selling whatever to health fad chasers, and put that money to good use as you see fit. Answer to no one but your conscience, but behaving in the way "polite society" demands, not because they are right, but because that's how you'll get paid attention and money.
Health insurance companies will try to kill you for profit.
Anyway, I upvoted your comment because I feel that you're giving good, or at least useful, advice. The fact that is is good advice kinda sucks. But that's not your fault. It's just the way it is.
Much realer talk: I have been here nearly 11 years. I appear to be the only woman to have ever spent time on the leader board and it looks like I am probably on track to also be the second woman to spend time on the leader board under my new handle (this one).
I have my criticisms of what goes on here, but I spend so much time here because whatever sexism and nonsense happens here pales in comparison to the hip deep crap of most other spaces. So I'm quite fond of HN, which is a large part of why I am here so much.
Rumors of my supposedly significant disappointment with HN are somewhat exaggerated for various reasons.
Though I stand by my position that it should be easier to turn my writing into income than it has proven to be and I stand by that not solely for my benefit but because of broader implications throughout the world that this issue has which people complain loudly about on a regular basis here and seem to fail to connect the dots between those issues and their choices. The fact that I choose to use myself as an example of this phenomenon should not be misconstrued as me being hugely personally butthurt with no larger point.
I use myself as an example because then I'm not doxxing other people or making them a target or whatever. I can decide just how much heat I care to take for today and walk away when I have had enough.
I do that as a "best practice" that I have worked out over the years. That's it. It's the least worst option in situations where unpleasantness is unavoidable.
I have zero plans to sell health fad crap. That absolutely will not happen and it's one of the reasons most of my sites have no ads: because the kinds of things I talk about tend to attract ads for things I would never, ever recommend, like colloidal silver which is straight up literal poison. I may at some point in the future move to zero ads. I'm aware that most of HN uses adblockers and I understand and respect the reasons they do that.
But if you want good content and you don't want ads, somehow that has to be paid for. And the current climate adds up to "Writers are just supposed to work for free." I think that's a fundamentally broken mental model. It's not sustainable. It's in line with ideas like "If you aren't the customer, you are the product." People decry content marketing, then don't want to support indie authors.
If you want everything free and don't want to pay your authors, they will work for someone who will pay them. And that means content marketing. If that's not the internet you want, then you need to stop insisting that writing simply doesn't pay and start kicking a few bucks towards indie authors whose content you would like to see more of.
My two cents (as someone who also has a medical condition, albeit not as life threatening as yours, that is not taken seriously by many and who makes much of their living by writing) -
People don't necessarily believe what others say about their own medical condition. My doctors agree about mine, I have tangible measurable results, yet some people, both online and in real life, don't believe me. Getting spun up over that is not the most effective use of my time and energy and it may not be the best use of yours.
On getting paid, I do get paid enough to live on, but I have worked for hire and haven't put content in the internet and expected that it would get monetized. Maybe finding more ways to work for hire (which iirc you already do)? I don't know much about the Patreon model, but I checked a YouTuber I follow with a very large subscriber base as an example. His Patreon base is much smaller. If that is representative that might not be a good way to get a reliable income.
I really appreciate the integrity, and am on my way over to Patreon.
But as far as I have been able to discover, colloidal silver turns your skin permanently blue-gray long before it reaches an (otherwise) toxic level. Completely useless, of course, and makes you look like a ghoul. I read of someone who had ?tens of grams in him when he died (of old age), because there is no way to excrete it.
A grey guy was running for US President not long ago. I don't know if he had any other qualifications, but can't help thinking we might be a lot better off having elected him.
But when I was having kids, I was still being treated like I was a hypochondriac. I sometimes refer to my diagnosis as "a better name for my condition than crazy."